#dewey1

"Dewey?"

Upon answering the phone, Donald could hardly hear from the other end as there were so many different noises in the background. He didn’t know where the triplet was, but he swore he heard sirens. Huey had been home, but the other two were gone, along with Webby. Well, they were adults; Donald didn’t have to keep constant tabs on them anymore, even if deep down he was more at ease when he knew they were all safe. Standing in the hallway of the manor, phone against his ear, he repeated Dewey’s name again until he finally made out his voice amongst the other noise.

“Uncle Donald.. We need you to meet us at the hospital..”

Eyes widening, Donald could only think of the worst with so little context. The sound of the sirens seemed to echo in his head now, already scrambling for his keys and still holding his phone to his ear. “Dewey, what happened? What is it?”

Dewey knew he couldn’t lie his way out of it anymore, and he knew he was toast as soon as Uncle Donald got the whole story. This was beyond any sort of mistake the middle triplet has ever made before, but he didn’t want Donald to flip out before he even got there. He let out a shaky breath, “It’s Louie .. He’s really hurt.”

That was enough for Donald to immediately hang up and rush to the hospital. He forgot to even let anyone else at home know, only thinking about how his worst fear had finally come true: one of his boys was hurt. He was frantic, passing through stop signs and going well over the speed limit along the way. He’d managed to get ahold of Daisy, despite that they weren’t together currently and she was busy at the ridiculous wedding that Donald felt Daisy had no place at to begin with. That fight had been the last they had, though he needed to brush that to the side to make sure that Daisy came for Louie. Together or not, Daisy was the boys’ aunt and needed to be there.

His parking was awfully crooked as he pulled into a space carelessly, almost leaving his keys in the ignition as he rushed inside. The first thing he noticed in the waiting room was Dewey and Webby sitting far apart from each other, both avoiding each other’s gazes and obviously upset. Before he went to either of them, he needed to hear confirmation from the doctors themselves what was going on, but boy was that difficult.. Donald was in such a panic that the staff was struggling to understand him, growing more and more frustrated as he demanded answers about his nephew. 

Once he was able to coherently communicate with the doctors and other hospital staff, Donald was left in a state of shock. They had no choice but to amputate Louie’s leg .. A majority of the other information Donald could hardly keep up with. His ears were ringing, unable to listen as he could only try to understand how this happened.

“Excuse me,” Donald stopped the doctor mid sentence, feeling himself growing more upset and not wanting to cause a scene, at least not toward the person who just saved his nephew’s life. Whatever happened from here, all that mattered was that Louie was alive. But that didn’t mean Donald wouldn’t be getting to the bottom of this.

As he stepped away, turning back toward the waiting room, he noticed that Huey was there now, pacing back and forth. What stood out to Donald the most was how much closer Huey was to Webby; it was Dewey that was singled-out, sitting completely alone with his head in his hands. Dewey had even been the one to call Donald first.. The uncle went straight toward him, putting a hand on his shoulder to get his attention from where he sat.

Eyes red from tears, Dewey looked up at Donald, feeling sick to his stomach as he knew what was about to come. He was going to have to fess up to his uncle for all that he did wrong .. and he wasn’t sure he’d come out of the conversation alive.

“Let’s talk outside,” Donald said, nodding toward the exit of the hospital. It came off as a suggestion, keeping his cool as he saw the tears in Dewey’s eyes, along with a few cuts and scrapes on his face, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer from him. He had to stay calm and sympathetic considering the circumstances, but he was also moments away from completely losing it. Even without knowing the details, Donald already knew it wouldn’t be good. Not when whatever details he was missing resulted in this.

Holding out his hand after Dewey stayed silent, Donald helped his nephew up to lead him outside the hospital. There were gloomy clouds above their heads in the sky, an icy evening chill welcoming them as they no longer stood inside the warmth of the waiting room. Dewey crossed his arms over his chest as he was met with the cold, sniffling as he mentally prepared for Donald’s wrath.

“I’m not going to get mad unless I have to,” Donald began without hesitation, the anticipation driving him more and more insane with every passing moment. He let out a shaky breath. “Tell me what happened, because from my understanding, somehow you three ended up at a hotel that was bombed.. I’m trying to wrap my head around how and why. Can you fill me in?”

Dewey nodded his head, though he didn’t meet his uncle’s gaze, taking a deep breath in and out. “Well …. Webby and I, we’ve been …. Doing some research and we might’ve been …. We’ve been looking for Mom.”

Donald’s stomach immediately turned to knots as he heard this, and suddenly little details clicked into place. The hotel, the portal, Della’s note. The kids were at the hotel .. Donald blinked in disbelief. “What?” He had so many other questions, but that was all he could manage for now, because he was trying to make sense of it. He knew from the very beginning that Dewey was the most like Della, and was the one most interested in her after all these years, but he had never said anything to make Donald think … and what about the other two? Did they have any part of this ridiculous secret research?

“We found the note, and we wanted to see the portal for ourselves, but Louie ended up tagging along, he had no idea,” Dewey began to spill everything, like word vomit. “I made Webby keep it a secret, I didn’t want anyone to make us stop looking for her, and I know it was stupid. I'm sorry..” Tears fell down Dewey’s cheeks, uncrossing his arms to use his hands and attempting to dry his cheeks. There was no point when he had no plans to stop crying anytime soon though. He’d done all of this. He ruined his brother’s life, and probably the rest of his family’s lives with it.

Donald’s silence was deafening, inhaling and exhaling in order to suppress his anger the best he could. He couldn’t believe this was actually happening. Donald had worked so hard their entire lives to protect the boys, to make sure they didn’t get hurt or lost like his twin sister had, and yet somehow, Dewey was following in the exact same path as Della. Even without knowing her at all, they were exactly like each other, in the worst way possible. 

Donald wanted to scream. He wanted to find Della right then and curse at her for putting him through this. For putting all of them through this. Scrooge, the triplets, but especially him. He could never escape the emptiness of losing his twin sister, because he had to see her sons every single day after raising them, and now he was facing the worst of her through Dewey’s actions. Because of her. 

If he couldn’t scream at Della, it unfortunately had to be Dewey that heard his wrath.

“I’m glad you already know it was stupid, but do I need to emphasize how fucking stupid this was?” Donald began, staring daggers into the younger boy. He never thought he’d have to get onto his boys like this as grown adults. He thought they would know better than this. Donald couldn’t help but wonder if he did something wrong, if he didn’t raise them right and this was the result. Suddenly, he was questioning everything. 

After Dewey shook his head silently, Donald continued, his voice rising in anger. “I would’ve thought that you understood how painful it is that your mom is gone, that she disappeared because she couldn’t resist an adventure, and what did you do? Followed her blindly to the portal? Did you even think of what would happen after that?”

Despite that Dewey knew he was right, there was still something so bothersome about the whole thing. Why was Dewey the only one who wanted to find Della? Not even her own twin brother cared? He crossed his arms again, cheeks red from his tears and the icy breeze. “Doesn’t anyone else want to find her? Doesn’t anyone else care? I know I shouldn’t have done it, but she’s my mom.. I wanted to bring her back home.”

Goddammit. Donald’s guilt had always lingered about this, from sheltering the boys so much when it came to their mom. Donald and Scrooge didn’t want to put them through the heartache of the truth, didn’t want to have to retell it themselves and hurt all over again, so they never talked about it. Della became an unspoken entity in their family, and now Donald was facing the consequences to that. If they had been honest from the beginning, would they have ended up here?

“Of course I care, that’s my sister. I want her back too,” he answered, tone still angry despite the sadness in his words. “The problem isn’t that you want to find her, Dewey, it’s that you lied, and you put your family in danger while doing it. Put yourself in danger. And now your brother lost a leg—”

A sob escaped Dewey’s lips, but Donald kept going, “ —You should see the mistakes Della has made and learn from them, not follow in her footsteps and do the same, unless you intentionally want to hurt your family. If that was your goal, then congrats, you really did that,” Donald scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief again. “Whatever plans you had of looking for her? Are done. You crossed a line and now I have no choice, I’m shutting it all down.”